WHITE BIRD IN A BLIZZARD written and directed by Gregg Araki, from the novel by Laura Kasischke, with Shailene Woodley, Eva Green, Christopher Meloni and Angela Bassett. A VSC release. 91 minutes. Opens Friday (October 24). For venues and times, see Movies. Rating: NNN
After ending the world (probably) in Kaboom, Gregg Araki downshifts to a smaller, more intimate apocalypse. It’s 1988, and small-town teen Kat Connor (Shailene Woodley) is trying to cope with the disappearance of her mother (Eva Green).
Araki turns Laura Kasischke’s 1999 novel into a contemporary Douglas Sirk melodrama, using casting tricks and sleek visual language to put a subtly surreal spin on the narrative. (There’s only a decade between Woodley and screen mom Green, while Christopher Meloni, who plays Kat’s father, has almost two decades on his screen wife.)
Green and Meloni manage the tricky task of playing Kat’s exaggerated memories of her parents, while Woodley’s layered performance shows us a young woman doing whatever she can to repress the truth about her parents’ relationship and her own sense of self.
Strangely, all three actors are so good at wearing their characters’ secrets on their faces that they undercut the movie’s emotional arc. We know these people better than they know themselves, making the big reveal of White Bird In A Blizzard almost superfluous.
